Davis Square Today

Located in West Somerville, Mass., Davis Square is a true urban destination. It’s home to bookstores and boutiques, cafés and restaurants, theatres and music clubs, and much more. Davis Square also offers prime office space and houses over 200 businesses and organizations, from high-tech corporations and healthcare providers to national nonprofit organizations and countless small businesses.

Davis Square is conveniently located near Tufts University, Harvard Square and Porter Square. A stop on the Red Line subway, Davis Square is served by several MBTA bus lines and threaded by the Minuteman Commuter Bikeway.

Art Scene

The public art of Davis Square showcases the area’s distinct urban character. In fact, Statue Park in the heart of Davis Square takes its name from the statues added to the square in the 1980s as part of the MBTA’s Arts on the Line program. The statues are based on actual Davis Square residents. In 1996, the statues were spread out beyond their original locations in front of JP Licks and Store 24 to include the Holland Street T exit and Statue Park.

Named for the seven hills of Somerville, Seven Hills Park is crowned by Clifford Selbert’s sculptures. Topping seven poles, each sculpture has a symbol reflecting Somerville’s history and landscape: a cow for the old Milk Way, an apple tree for the city’s orchards and a miniature McLean’s Asylum.

Davis Square is also home to one of Somerville’s unique forms of public art: the Somerville Arts Council’s Switchbox Project. Begun in 1997 by artists Catherine Jaggi and Shoshana Phillips, the Switchbox Project aims to bring art into the city’s streets by allowing local artists to use switchboxes as canvasses for their work.

Look for work by Hoay Cheah at the intersection of Cutter and Summer Streets and works by both Phillips and Jason Chase in Statue Park. More recently, Chase painted a jolly popcorn-themed box, alluding to nearby Somerville Theatre.

* Based on information provided by the City of Somerville and the Somerville Arts Council.